A judge in Texas ruled Thursday that three other states can move forward with their effort to roll back federal regulations and make access harder for people across the US. abortion drug mifepristone,
The states of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri filed the request in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas. The only judge based there is Matthew Kaczmarik, former President Donald Trump's nominee, who previously ruled in favor of challenges to the pill's approval.
States want the federal Food and Drug Administration to ban telehealth prescriptions for mifepristone And it requires that it be used only in the first seven weeks of pregnancy instead of the current limit of 10 weeks. They also want it to require three in-person visits to get the drug, rather than one to a doctor's office.
That's because, the states argue, efforts to provide access to the pills “undermine state abortion laws and frustrate state law enforcement,” according to court documents.
Meanwhile, Kaksmaryk said they should not be automatically exempted from being sued in Texas because they are out of state.
The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that the case should have been settled when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously protected access to mifepristone last year, where the justices issued a narrow ruling that came after abortion opponents first filed the case. , they did not have the legal right to sue.
The ACLU said Kaksmaryk's decision “leaves the door open for extremist politicians to continue attacking medication abortion in their court.”
The decision comes days before Trump begins his second term as president, so his administration will likely represent the FDA in the case. Trump has repeatedly said that abortion is an issue for the states, not the federal government, although he has also emphasized during the campaign that he will support Supreme Court justices if they end national access to abortion in 2022. Who were in majority.
In the years since, abortion opponents have increasingly targeted the abortion pill, primarily because most American abortions are performed using medications rather than surgical procedures. So far, Republicans in at least four states — Indiana, Missouri, New Hampshire and Tennessee — have introduced bills aimed at banning the pills. None take the same approach as Louisiana, which last year classified the drugs as controlled dangerous substances.
Previously, Kacsameric had sided with a group of anti-abortion doctors and organizations who wanted the FDA to be forced to completely rescind the approval of mifepristone in 2000.
Yet states face a narrower challenge. Rather than targeting approval altogether, he sought to undo a series of FDA updates that would have made access easier.
But while state leaders are pushing to severely limit access to drugs, voters in Missouri sent a different message in November when they approved a ballot measure to lift one of the nation's strictest restrictions. . Abortion is banned at all stages of pregnancy in Idaho. In Kansas, abortion is generally legal up to the 22nd week of pregnancy.
Across the US, 13 states under Republican legislative control ban abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with a few exceptions, and four other states ban it after the first six weeks – often before women even know. Let's say they are pregnant.
Some Democratic-controlled states have adopted laws to protect from investigation and prosecution doctors who prescribe pills via telehealth appointments and refer patients to states with restrictions. These prescriptions are a major reason, one study found, that residents of states with restrictions are getting abortions in roughly the same number as before the ban was enacted.
Mifepristone is typically used in combination with another medication for medication abortion, which has accounted for more than three-fifths of all abortions in the US since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The medications differ from Plan B and other emergency contraceptives in that they are usually taken within three days of potential conception, a few weeks before women find out they are pregnant. Studies have shown that they are generally safe and result in a complete abortion in more than 97% of cases, which is less effective than procedural abortion.